A journey through the counterculture and anti–Vietnam War protests of America between 1968 and 1972, exploring the influences and imagery that shaped Woolrich’s Archive collection.
Client:
Woolrich
Executive Creative Director:
Riccardo Galimberti
Executive Producer:
Pietro Polentes
Art Director:
Rachele Santini
Design:
Rachele Santini
Animations:
Riccardo Galimberti
Compositing:
Riccardo Galimberti
The renowned American clothing brand Woolrich asked us to create a film exploring the events and ideas that inspired its Archive capsule collection.
The events that unfolded across the United States between 1968 and 1972 profoundly shaped world history, while also giving rise to a powerful visual aesthetic that would go on to significantly influence fashion in the decades that followed.
This aesthetic lies at the heart of the Archive collection. Our task? To tell that story.
Woolrich introduced us to their highly knowledgeable consultant, who immersed us in the atmosphere of those years, giving us the right inspiration and historical context for the story.
We find ourselves on a dusty American road, ready to set off on a journey through American history between the 1960s and 1970s. A journey shaped by wars, protests, cultural movements and civil unrest — the forces that gave rise to iconic garments and styles. Woolrich’s new Archive capsule collection draws inspiration from all of this.
As the journey unfolds, the story is divided into different chapters, each connected to an iconic garment from those years that went on to influence one of the pieces in the collection.
The concept was therefore built around a simple storytelling structure: exploring the historical context that gave rise to an iconic garment, and then connecting it to the corresponding piece in the collection.
All of this was brought together through a voice that had to feel solemn, dusty, gritty and unapologetically tough.
The design of the film followed the path of the story itself. A raw, gritty and weathered aesthetic, built around photographic and archival footage layered with graphics, text, textures and film burns.
The project was created in mixed media, combining different types of visual content: photography, video, graphics, text and VFX.
The layouts for the various scenes, created in Adobe Photoshop, required a significant amount of time, both for the research phase and for the careful assembly of all the elements.
The visual elements were then fully animated in Adobe After Effects, recreating a sort of stop-motion effect.
The film was initially created for the brand’s global sales force, but as the project developed, it began to evolve into something more: the potential first episode of an imagined series of short documentaries exploring the influences, stories and cultural references behind Woolrich.
The film was later revised and refined to become a more traditional promotional piece. The launch of the collection was supported through the film at promotional events and across digital campaigns, as well as through Woolrich’s official website and retail stores.
